Spider-Man DVD Widescreen SEALED Sam Raimi 2 Disks 1st movie

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION: This listing is for a shrinkwrapped Spider-Man DVD in widescreen format. The first Spider-Man movie is as close to perfection as you’re going to get. Raimi captured perfectly why Peter Parker is the best character Stan Lee ever created. If you’re as much a fan as I am, you’d do well to read on to see how packed this DVD is with extras and “easter eggs”! (I included easter egg info from multiple sources just in case you have trouble accessing one of them.) FULL DESCRIPTION: For devoted fans and nonfans alike, Spider-Man offers what you’d expect from a superhero blockbuster. Having proven his comic-book savvy with the original Darkman, director Sam Raimi brings ample energy and enthusiasm to Spidey’s origin story, nicely establishing high-school nebbish Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) as a brainy outcast who reacts with appropriate euphoria–and well-tempered maturity–when a “super-spider” bite transforms him into the amazingly agile, web-shooting Spider-Man. That’s all well and good, and so is Kirsten Dunst as Parker’s girl-next-door sweetheart. Willem Dafoe is perfectly cast as Spidey’s schizoid nemesis, the Green Goblin, and the movie’s a lot of fun overall. Average teenager Peter Parker is transformed into an extraordinary super hero after he is accidentally bitten by a radioactive spider. When his beloved uncle is savagely murdered during a robbery, young Peter vows to use his powers to avenge his death. Deeming himself “Spider-Man ,” he sets about ridding the streets of crime, bringing him into conflict with malevolent super-villain “Green Goblin.” Far from the madding crowds who haunted multiplexes endlessly this past summer, “Spider-Man” arrives amid fresh hype on DVD from Columbia Tristar Home Entertainment. Not content with having what will probably be this year’s most successful theatrical release, Columbia Tristar Home Entertainment wanted to make sure that this title would be the coolest, most sought after DVD for the holiday season. As everyone must surely know by now, Sam Raimi’s “Spider-Man” represented the first big-screen incarnation of Marvel Comics’ most durable and enduring super-hero. During a class field trip to a lab, nerdy high-school student Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) accidentally gets bitten from by a genetically altered spider. He soon discovers that he has developed very unusual abilities: enhanced strength, the ability to climb sheer vertical walls with ease, spin web strands at will and heightened ESP or “spider sense.” When a robber kills Peter’s beloved uncle, a tragedy that might have been averted, he dedicates his life to fighting crime as Spider-man. He remembers something his uncle told him: “With great power there must also come great responsibility.” Of course, just as a benevolent superhero is born, so must an equally malevolent archenemy emerge: the Green Goblin aka maniacal businessman and scientist Norman Osborn (Willem Dafoe). With similarly augmented strength and intelligence – but also driven insane by his own physical power – Osborn/Green Goblin and Peter/Spider-Man clash in a series of epic showdowns in and around the Big Apple itself. In many ways, director Sam Raimi was the perfect candidate to bring Spidey to the big screen. There’s a comic book sensibility to most of his films, especially 1990’s “Darkman.” He brought a real reverence to the production, rarely straying too far conceptually from the character’s comic book origins. For the die-hand fans, Raimi and screenwriter David Koepp kept Spider-Man’s world intact. This movie is not retro, campy, dark or brooding. It is fast-paced, very colorful, vivid and alive at times. The first major skirmish between Spider-Man and Green Goblin amid Macy’s Parade type balloons (Chapter 18) offers the type of action that previously only existed in the comics, but with the aid of a visual effects army led by guru John “original ‘Star Wars’” Dykstra, Raimi stages the fantasy with a fair amount of energy and swagger, especially in the swooping camera shots of Spider-Man swinging through the steel canyons of Manhattan. Columbia Tristar’s two-disc DVD spares no bits in giving the viewer every conceivable detail of the project. Disc one contains the film (released as separate full-frame and widescreen editions), commentary by director Raimi, visual effects supervisor Dykstra, and actors Maguire and Dunst, trailers, music video, TV spots and “Pop-Up Video” feature that displays random factoids during the presentation. Disc two houses two behind-the-scenes broadcast specials from E! Entertainment Television and HBO, two featurettes profiling director Raimi and composer Danny Elfman, screen tests, and an entire section devoted to the “Evolution of Spider-Man” including a “villainography”. Whew! The 1.85 anamorphic transfer looks fresh and clean. Colors look sharp and clean, with no chroma noise, amazing given Spider-Man’s solid crimson costume. Deep blacks and perfect contrast balance contribute to giving lots of depth and detail to many scenes. Despite the heavy competition from primary reds and greens, fleshtones look nice and natural. The source print shows no blemishes at all and even the process shots comes across much clearer here than theatrically. The Dolby Digital 5.1 audio presents a very active, aggressive soundfield. The soundtrack is very busy, with more than frequent rear channel sound effects activity, a very wide soundstage and deep but short of gut-busting LFE enhancement. In fact, there were times when I almost wanted to turn down the surrounds at one point simply because they are so constantly engaged. The only other soundtrack is a French language 5.1 discrete track. The commentaries are broken down into “Filmmakers and cast” and “Visual effects crew.” Director Raimi, producers Grant Curtis and Laura Ziskin and star Kirsten Dunst all chime in with varying degrees of success, and the visual effects commentary by Dykstra, visual effects producer Scott Skoroyk and animation supervisor Anthony LaMolinara just got too technical for me. Just like it’s inspiration from VH-1, the “Weaving the Web” pop-up factoids are a lot of fun, with tidbits ranging from Kirsten Dunst’s career to how they painted the spider that bites Parker. There is only one “Spider-Man” trailer in the Marketing Campaign section (it’s the final theatrical version, not the teaser that featured the World Trade Center which was eventually pulled from theaters). The remaining trailers are from other Columbia Tristar movies including “Men in Black II” and “XXX.” Eleven TV spots and three music videos round out this section. Disc two splits the Spider-Man comic book extras from the Spider-Man film extras with the menus splitting them between the Spider-Man archive and the Goblin’s Lair. The Goblin’s Lair features the HBO and E! Specials. The Sam Raimi and Danny Elfman profiles seem also to be culled from EPK materials since they feature the actors and producers on-set for their laudatory comments about their respective subjects. The gag/outtakes reel is self-explanatory: a collage of the funnier flubs and goofs spliced together (the gag reel is a tradition at wrap parties). Screen tests of Maguire, Dunst, J.K. Simmons (as ultra suspicious newspaper editor J. Jonas Jameson), along with make-up/costume tests and even some test footage of a CGI Spider-Man scaling an apartment wall round out the second disc’s extras. Where Columbia Tristar missed the boat was not including the hysterical “Spider-Man” parody from this year’s MTV Movie Awards, featuring Jack Black (“Shallow Hal”) as Peter Parker and Sarah Michelle Geller as Mary Jane Watson. Columbia Tristar really pulled out the stops in bringing “Spider-Man” to DVD. Despite a few technical caveats in the transfer, the two-disc set really represents the state-of-the-art in DVD quality and content. EXTRAS: Commentaries: The disc includes a commentary by director Sam Raimi, Kirsten Dunst, producer Laura Ziskin, and co-producer Grant Curtis, as well as a commentary from special effects designer John Dykstra and members of the visual effects crew. The first commentary seems to have been recorded in pairs, with Dunst/Ziskin together and Raimi/Curtis together. I was a little surprised that Dunst didn’t have more to say – while her commentary with director John Stockwell proved to be both entertaining and insightful, her occasional comments here are mainly just praise of the film and her co-stars and crew. Ziskin and Raimi provide more noteworthy information, as Raimi provides an especially solid mixture of discussion of story, technical information and the obstacles of taking on such a major project that also had a major fan-base. It’s a decent commentary, but there are some patches of silences and stretches of rather uninteresting chatter. The second commentary with Dykstra (who has worked on the visual FX of “Star Wars” and “Stuart Little”) and crew is a bit more dry, but also a bit more interesting because it gets right to the point and provides solid technical information. They provide a bit of good humor on occasion and, while there are some occasional pauses of silence in the track, they rarely fall back to simply restating what’s happening in the story or spending too long praising the cast/crew. Also on Disc 1: Disc one also offers two features to play along with the picture. “Spider Sense” is another one of those features where viewers must click upon a little logo when it pops up to access a short featurette about the production. In addition, there’s also subtitle fact track. “Marketing Campaign” includes trailers for “Spider-Man”, “XXX”, “Stan Lee’s Mutants, Monsters and Marvels”, “Mr. Deeds”, “Men in Black II” and “Stuart Little 2”. There’s also 11 TV ads, two music videos (“Hero” and “What We’re All About”), character bios and DVD-ROM features. HBO Making Of: This feature starts off disc two and is an indication of the kind of trouble ahead. While this 24-minute piece isn’t too terrible in comparison to most promotional documentaries, it’s disapointing that in-depth documentaries on the production (rather than a lengthy discussion of what we’ve just seen) weren’t done for the DVD. What we get here is a general overview of the film, with interviews from members of the cast and crew about the production, with some behind-the-scenes material and an awful lot of clips from the picture. E! Special: This is a 40-minute look at the making of the picture. Thankfully, the interviews here are a little more fun, insightful and informative, while the behind-the-scenes clips are a little stronger. Unfortunately, some of the material shown here has already been covered on the HBO documentary. If anything, I’d skip that piece and watch this one instead. Profiles: Sam Raimi and Danny Elfman: These two featurettes run for several minutes each and tell us why both are so wonderful and brilliant. Yes, Sam Raimi is a great director and Danny Elfman is a marvelous composer. However, several minutes of telling me that on both just isn’t very interesting. The only funny moment is Raimi’s “Evil Dead” star Bruce Campbell making a few jokes on the Raimi featurette. Screen Tests: First, there’s Tobey Maguire’s screen test, which comes complete with background music bad enough to make a serious scene almost humorous. Also included in this section are: the test for JK Simmons, a CGI Spider Man test and make-up/costume tests. All are very brief. Gag Reel: A gag reel that lasts a few minutes. A couple laughs to be had, but there’s been better gag reels on other DVDs…Spider-Man: The Mythology: This is a 25-minute piece that focuses on the creation of the comic and its history. It includes interviews with Stan Lee and others, who give a lot of interesting tidbits about “Spider Man”, as well as some other background about the comic industry. Those deeply familiar with the comic industry may find this featurette old news, but I enjoyed it. Archives: This includes various images from the comic (covers) from the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s and 21st century, along with the storylines. There’s also an Artist’s Gallery, with additional comic stills. Rogue’s Gallery provides a look at Spider-Man’s various villians, while Loves of Peter Parker looks at Parker’s love interests. Activision Game Tips: Tips for the PS2/Xbox/Gamecube game are available here. Pretty fun game, actually. DVD-ROM: Pop the first disc into your computer and you’ll find a few rather nifty features. The first feature is Record Your Commentary. I believe this was also a feature on the “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back” DVD. While it’s rather difficult to discuss the movie, given the fact that I was not a member of the production, some may find this fun to do a “Mystery Science Theater 3000” and provide some jokes about the film. The other feature included on disc one is a Comic/Feature comparison, which is quite enjoyable – it’s actually a split-screen comparison of the film and stills from the comic book adaptation. There’s also a web-link, which didn’t appear to be ready yet. Disc two’s DVD-ROM features include a screen-saver and game demo. Final Thoughts: “Spider-Man” remains terrific entertainment – a blockbuster that delivers excitement, heart and great characters. The DVD is very nice, but not groundbreaking: the extras are certainly on the promotional side, while the audio/video quality is above-average, but not excellent. Still, the film’s highly entertaining and the DVD is still worthy of a look for those who haven’t seen it and purchase consideration for those who have and enjoyed it. EASTER EGGS: There are at least six Easter eggs on the “Spider-Man” DVDs. Here’s how to find them –> The “Spider-Man” DVD set contains at least six Easter eggs, and I first came upon a description of them on the Superhero Hype site. Below I’ve given my own set of instructions for how to find the Easter eggs, the first two of which are on Disc 1, the remaining four being on Disc 2. I found the content of the first four Easter eggs described below to be reasonably interesting, but the last two seemed to me to be strictly for the hard-core. Here’s my version of the list of the six Easter eggs on the “Spider-Man” DVDs: 1. Insert Disc 1. Navigate to the “Special Features” menu. Highlight “Commentaries” and press Enter. On the “Commentaries” menu, highlight “Special Features” and press the left arrow. A spider icon will appear on the shirt of the man pictured at the left of the screen. Press Enter and you will see about two minutes and 20 seconds of CGI bloopers. 2. Insert Disc 1. Navigate to the “Special Features” menu. Highlight “Character Files” and press Enter. On the “Character Files” menu, highlight “Tobey Maguire” and press Enter. You will be at the first screen of the Tobey Maguire filmography. Press the right arrow, which takes you to the second screen of Maguire’s filmography. Press the up arrow, and a red circle will appear around the name “Tobey Maguire” at the top of the screen. Press Enter and you will arrive at a screen giving information about the character Peter Parker. By pressing the right arrow or left arrow, you can access information about other characters, including Norman Osborn, Mary Jane, J. Jonah Jameson, and Aunt May. 3. Insert Disc 2. At the Main Menu, highlight “Web of Spider-Man the Comic” and press Enter. This leads to the “Web of Spider-Man” menu, where you highlight “DVD-ROM” and press Enter. The “DVD-ROM” menu comes up with “Web of Spider-Man” already highlighted. Press the up arrow and a large red icon will appear in the middle of the screen. Press Enter and you will see a two-minute featurette titled “A New Twist on the Webs.” 4. Insert Disc 2. At the Main Menu, highlight “Web of Spider-Man the Comic” and press Enter. This leads to the “Web of Spider-Man” menu, where you highlight “The Evolution of Spider-Man” and press Enter. This leads to “The Evolution of Spider-Man” menu, where you highlight “Artists Gallery” and press the right arrow. The words “The Romitas” will appear at the top right of the screen. Press Enter and you will see a three-and-one-half minute featurette on the father-son team of artists who draw Spider-Man. 5. Insert Disc 2. At the Main Menu, highlight “Web of Spider-Man the Comic” and press Enter. This leads to the “Web of Spider-Man” menu, where you highlight “The Evolution of Spider-Man” and press Enter. This leads to “The Evolution of Spider-Man” menu, where you highlight “Rogue’s Gallery” and press Enter. The villain known as Hobgoblin will be depicted at the upper left of the screen and will be highlighted. First press the right arrow, then press the up arrow, and the Spider-Man silhouette at the top of the screen will be highlighted. Press Enter and you will arrive at a screen with a small amount of information on half a dozen villains known as the “Sinister Six.” 6. Insert Disc 2. At the Main Menu, highlight “Web of Spider-Man the Comic” and press Enter. This leads to the “Web of Spider-Man” menu, where you highlight “The Evolution of Spider-Man” and press Enter. This leads to “The Evolution of Spider-Man” menu, where you highlight “Rogue’s Gallery” and press Enter. The villain known as Hobgoblin will be depicted at the upper left of the screen and will be highlighted. First press the down arrow, then press the right arrow, and the villain known as Electro will be highlighted. Press Enter and arrive at the “Electro” screen. Highlight the red and white circular icon at the bottom of the screen and press the down arrow. A blue icon will appear near the middle of the screen. Press Enter and you will see a full-screen picture of Electro revolving. (Note: The same thing that works for Electro also works for Venom and Scorpion.) Spider-Man (Widescreen Special Edition) CGI blooper reel Submitted on 09/17/2005 by Varrus On Disc 1: Go into the “Special Features” section and select “Commentaries”. Highlight “Special Features” and press LEFT. A big spider will appear over the image of Harry Osborn. Press ENTER and you’ll be treated to a CGI blooper reel. Biographies Submitted on 09/17/2005 by Varrus On Disc 1: Go into the “Special Features” section and select “Character Files”. Choose any of the actors (except Cliff Robertson). Press RIGHT to navigate to the actor’s second page and then press UP. The actor’s name will be circled. Press ENTER and you’ll access a biography of the comic book character that actor is playing. Interview Submitted on 09/17/2005 by Varrus On Disc 2: Select the “Evolution of Spider-Man” and highlight “Artists Gallery”. Press RIGHT to reveal “The Romitas” at the top of the screen. Press ENTER to access an interview session with Joe Quesada, and John Romita Sr. and Jr. 3D rendering of Villans Submitted on 09/17/2005 by Varrus Select the “Evolution of Spider-Man” and go into the “Rogue’s Gallery” section. Choose either Electro, Venom or Scorpion. Highlight the Spidey icon at the bottom of the screen and press DOWN to reveal a Spider-Man silhouette. Press ENTER and you’ll see a full-screen 3D rendering of your chosen villain. Sinister Six Submitted on 09/17/2005 by Varrus On Disc 2: Select the “Evolution of Spider-Man” and go into the “Rogue’s Gallery” section. Press UP until the “Spidey Senses” glow around Spider-Man’s head. Press ENTER to access a biography of the Sinister Six. Comic Covers Submitted on 09/17/2005 by Varrus On Disc 2: Select the “Evolution of Spider-Man” and go into the “Artists’ Gallery” section. Choose “Comic Book Artists Gallery” and press RIGHT until you reach a portrait of Spider-Man by Terry Dodson. Now press UP to reveal Terry’s signature. Press ENTER and you can now browse a gallery of Spidey’s famous comic book covers redrawn with movie costumes and faces. Spaghetti webbing Submitted on 09/17/2005 by Varrus On Disc 2: Select the “DVD-ROM” option and press UP. A Spidey mask will appear on the screen. Press ENTER to watch a clip with Todd McFarlane on Spidey’s “spaghetti webbing”. Spiderman Easter Egg – Sinister Six Put in disk 2. Then go to the comic book section. Go to rogue gallery. Then go to doc ock, but don’t click on him. Press up on your dvd remote to where spider-man is, his spider sense will light up. Click that and you can ead up on the sinster sixes history and how they came to be. Spiderman Easter Egg – Spiderman CGI Bloopers and Gag Reel If you put in the first disc, the one with the film itself (not the Extras disc), and you click on ‘Commentaries’ then you will see a picture of Harry Osborn (James Franco) on the left-hand side of the screen. If you click on the picture of Harry a new screen appears called something like “CGI Bloopers & Gag Reel”. Start this sucker up and you will first see the CGI clip of Peter Parker running over the rooftops as you see in the film, but this time he’s chasing the pills as you would see in a Pac-Man game! Next up, you get to see a clip of Spidey climbing a wall – but this time it’s only his hands climbing the wall – nothing else, no body, arms – nada! And finally there’s a clip showing the CGI Spider-Man & Green Goblin doing aerobics… we repeat, aerobics! Sorry, that’s too funny. The animated clip shows things like the skeleton of the Green Goblin model and more. Spiderman Easter Egg – Character Profiles On Disc One, from the Main Menu, choose Special Features. Then choose Character Files. Choose any actor except Cliff Robertson (Ben Parker). Press Right access the second page of their filmography. Now press Up. The actor’s name will now be circled. Press Enter to access a biography of the comic character they are playing. Spiderman Easter Egg – Sinister Six History Insert disc two (the special features disk), go to the comic section of the DVD, choose the “evolution of spider-man” option, then go to “rogues gallery”. Once you are there, at the top you will see a picture of Spidey with his spidey sense tingling. Press up until his spidey sense highlights, push play and you will get a page on “the sinister six” with information and 3D photos. Spiderman Easter Egg – Spiderman Rogue 3D On disc two, go to the evolution of spider man, then choose the rogue’s gallery. Go to Electro, at the menu button (spidey logo) press down, you’ll highlight a spidey silohuette. Select it and you’ll get the full screen version of the 3D Electro. It works also for Venom and Scorpion. Spiderman Easter Egg – Quick on the Draw Insert disc 2. Select ‘Web Of Spiderman’ (on the left hand side of the screen). Select ‘The Evolution Of Spiderman’. Press RIGHT to highlight ‘Artists Gallery’. Press RIGHT again. At the top of the screen you should see ‘The Romitas’ appear. Press ENTER to watch a brief interview with Spiderman artist John Romita Jr and his father as well as Joe Quesada of Marvel Comics. Spiderman Easter Egg – Todd McFarlane Interview In the second disk go to the DVD-ROM feature and press the UP arrow and a Spidey icon will appear. Click there and you’ve got an exclusive interview with Todd McFarlane talking about how Spidey makes his webs. Thats all from here.